Survival rates probed in cardiac arrest study

From: stuff.co.nz

People suffering from cardiac arrest are more likely to survive if it happens in public, a Wellington-wide study has found.

It doesn't seem to matter whether victims collapse at home in a wealthy suburb or a poor one - the number of bystanders who know cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is the same, and the ambulance response times are just as swift, which is not always the case in other countries cited in the research, such as South Korea and the United States.

"If you have a cardiac arrest at home, it doesn't matter where you are - whether Cannons Creek or Kelburn - the outcomes are the same," said Peter Larsen, co-author of the joint University of Otago and Wellington Free Ambulance study.

The research looked at data collected between 2007 and 2010 on 413 out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients aged 16 and over, who were given resuscitation.